


there's a place on the corner of cherry street

by bloodredcherries



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Background Relationships, F/M, Minor Alice Cooper/FP Jones II, Minor Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Minor Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-22 03:38:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17655332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodredcherries/pseuds/bloodredcherries
Summary: Five times that Toni crashed at Jughead's.





	there's a place on the corner of cherry street

**Author's Note:**

  * For [southsidestyle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/southsidestyle/gifts).



> This fic is canon divergent from the end of Season 2.

The First Time

 

Toni bit back a sigh, as she readied herself to knock on the door of the Serpent King’s trailer, silently cursing her grandfather out in the back of her head as she did, along with the fact that the man had locked her out of her own home. Not that it actually  _ was _ her home, she reminded herself. She was grateful that Thomas Topaz had taken her in, once her mom had ended up in jail, and all attempts to find her father had proven fruitless. She knew that her grandfather loved her, in his own way, but the fact remained that Toni may have been a Topaz by name, but she wasn’t  _ anything _ like the father that had left her behind. 

 

Not that Toni knew her old man. She just knew that she was nothing like him, or her mother, who had chosen to run drugs -- real, actual, hard drugs -- instead of staying home and taking care of her child. She would have locked herself out, too, if she had been her grandfather. 

 

She raised her hand to knock on the door again, before it swung open to reveal the King in a  _ very _ rumpled state, as if she had woken him up. A quick glance at her phone informed her that she probably had. She cringed.

 

“Jugs?” He questioned, as he squinted in her direction, and she felt her heart break. Everyone knew about the Serpent King’s son, who went to school on the Northside of town, and got to live on the Northside of town, mainly because FP was an unfortunately chatty drunk. Maudlin, too. “You decided to stay, after all?” His words were slurred, but his tone was hopeful. Toni cringed.

 

“No, FP,” she said, trying to break the reality of her presence to him gently. “It’s Toni. I was wondering if I could bunk on the couch, or something. Grandpa locked me out.” She fixed a polite smile on her face. “If not, that’s okay,” she added. “I can just sleep at the Wyrm.”

 

“I made up the boy’s room for him,” he told her, a moment of sober clarity reaching the surface, and she peered at him in confusion. “Wasn’t good enough. You can use it. If you want. Your grandfather, he can be a real asshole, you know?”

 

Toni made the executive decision to follow him back into the trailer, as she tried to unpack the statement that he had made. Not the part about her grandfather being an asshole, that part she understood. There had long been bad blood between the Topazes and the Joneses, since the start of the gang. Toni’s grandfather liked to fuel the flames, more than most people would have been comfortable doing towards the leader of their gang. No, it was the comment about Jughead, that had peaked her interest. The King was the King, and no one really knew why he lived in the trailer alone, but, she had always thought that Mrs. Jones had taken the kids and made a life for herself over the other side of the river. 

 

Why would Jughead have a room here, then? 

 

“You’re sure that he won’t mind?” Toni asked. “I mean, doesn’t he live here?” The last thing she wanted was to encounter the King’s son in his domain, and it would be typical of FP to not realize that “Jugs” was, indeed, staying there that night, not that she heard any signs of life in the trailer beside FP, and herself. FP scoffed. “What?”

 

“You think Jugs stays here? Boy barely gives me the damn time of day.” 

“I’m so--”   
  


“Don’t be sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s my own fault. I keep fuckin’ up. Just...go to sleep, kid. You look like you need it.” 

  
  


The Second Time

 

“I don’t understand why you don’t just  _ talk _ to her,” Toni whispered, as she tried to process the situation that she had stumbled into with Jughead, though she would have prefered to not be discussing the issues that he had with his newly-minted ex-girlfriend after what they had just finished doing. She had fast discovered that Jughead was an enigma. While most guys would have been quite willing to let a blow job by a hot girl take their minds off of their emotional issues, it had become clear that Jughead was not most teenage boys. Which, while nice, she supposed, was also maddening. “Surely there is a reason behind what happened, which, by the way, I suspect was  _ not _ what that Hitchcock Blonde intended to happen when she sent your supposed best friend over to do her dirty work.” She rolled her eyes. “And, Jones, maybe you should tell that smokeshow she calls her mother all about your mysterious lack of foster parents? That would be good for an angry article or two, I’m sure.” 

 

Jughead spluttered. She smirked. “You think  _ Mrs. Cooper _ is a ‘smokeshow’?” 

 

“Oh, sure, she’s too tightly wound for my tastes,” Toni allowed, her grin wicked, as she watched Jughead’s face redden, and she playfully poked him in his side. “But you have to say, she’s not  _ bad _ looking for a Northsider MILF. I’m bisexual, Jones. I’m allowed to look at a woman and find her attractive.” 

 

“You don’t understand,” he said. “If I told her that my foster family had left me high and dry, it  _ wouldn’t _ be angry articles. It would be her visiting my father in jail, and living in her house on Elm Street, and church every damn Sunday. She and her husband would probably make me quit the Serpents…” He trailed off. Toni stared at him, not even bothering to hide her disbelief. “What?”

 

“You seriously would rather live here alone, and involve yourself in a gang that your father  _ never _ wanted you to be part of, versus having a warm bed and three meals a day? Why? Because you don’t want to go to church? Or see Betty?” 

 

“You don’t understand,” he moaned.

 

“You’re right, I don’t understand. You lived on the Northside for years, and now they’re suddenly not good enough for you? If I had a Northsider family that would give me the time of day, I would be gone faster than you could say boo. You just take that for granted and discard that, and, for what? Why? Don’t you know what the Serpents did to your Dad? What they could do to you?”

 

“I’m  _ not _ a Northsider,” he protested. “I’m not like Betty, or Archie, or  _ any _ of them. I finally have an explanation for  _ why _ I’m weird, okay? I need that. I don’t need Mr. and Mrs. Cooper’s fake pity of me. I’m fine on my own.” 

 

Toni was dubious. Still. There was no need to argue about it tonight. Not when they had access to the King’s bed, rather than Jughead’s miniscule one. She had  _ no _ idea how FP had afforded it, but she had  _ never _ slept in a king sized bed before. She wasn’t ruining her chances. 

 

“If you say so, Jughead,” she drawled. “Tomorrow morning, you’re taking me to Pop’s.”

  
  


The Third Time

 

“How is he?” Toni asked softly, as she entered the trailer, and found FP pacing around the small kitchenette, a phone held up to his ear, having a rather animated discussion with whomever was on the other end of the line. “Is he talking about Jughead?” Betty was sat at the kitchen table, looking several shades paler than she normally did. “Is Jughead alright?”

 

“It’s my mother,” Betty said after a moment, her tone subdued. “She’s gotten ideas on joining this cult that my sister belongs to. I didn’t know what else to do, so I told Mr. Jones. I’m pretty sure that he’s her only friend.” The blonde sighed. “Jughead is fine,” she said quietly. “I was going to spend the night with him, while Mr. Jones and Mr. Andrews tried to reason with my mother, but...since you’re here, would you want to? As long as you think it would be okay with Cheryl.”

 

Toni didn’t know if it would be okay with Cheryl, but, truthfully, she didn’t care. If her girlfriend didn’t understand that the Serpents were like family to her, and that her relationship with Jughead was purely platonic, then, well, she didn’t understand her at all. Toni had almost lost two friends during riot night, she was not going to let Cheryl’s potential jealousy mean that she wasn’t allowed to spend time with her heavily injured friend. Plus, Toni  _ knew _ about cults, okay? She had totally seen True Hollywood Stories on them. 

 

“Don’t worry about Cheryl and me,” she said smoothly. “You just show me what I need to do to make sure that things go smoothly for Jughead tonight, and I will be a picture-perfect Nurse Toni.” 

 

“You’d really do that, Toni?” FP asked. He and Betty looked like they could win a competition for the most exhausted person in Riverdale. She nodded. “Alright, thanks. The boy is pretty heavily sedated, he shouldn’t really bother you,” he said. “Let me show you where all of his meds are, okay?”

 

“Of course,” she said, as she followed him down the hallway and into the trailer’s sole bathroom, which was now littered with various medical supplies. She didn’t think that it was that sanitary, and questioned the judgement of whomever had let Jughead out of the hospital in the state that he was in. “You know how it goes. We take care of our own.”

 

“Yeah, I know, Toni.” 

 

“Maybe you should sleep at the Coopers’ tonight?” Toni found herself suggesting. “I’d call you if you were needed here?”

 

“Yeah, maybe,” he mumbled. “You’re sure?” 

  
  


The Fourth Time

  
  


At some point, Toni had been given a key to the Joneses’ trailer, not that she had ever wanted to use it (Toni knew better than to overstay her welcome at any place, let alone allow her grandfather to find out that she had curried favor in the eyes of the Serpent King, or, for that matter, his son). But, the fact that she had been dating Cheryl had been enough to have her on Thomas’s shit list, and she knew better than to expect the fact that she had caught Cheryl in an ...intimate situation would cause great sympathy in the older man. Hence, her decision to just sneak in and sleep on the floor of the kitchenette and sneak out in the morning, before anyone noticed. 

 

She had done it before, and she was sure that she would do it again.

 

Except. “I wouldn’t go in there, if I were you,” Jughead’s voice directed, and she jumped about a foot into the air, before she located him, perched on the hood of a station wagon. “They’ve been going at it in there for what seems like days,” he reported, rather dramatically. “You’d think that it would be too much cardio for a couple in their early forties, but…” 

 

“So? Your father has a bedroom,” she pointed out. “It must be awkward to hear them, but…”

 

Jughead shook his head. “That statement implies that they  _ made it _ to the bedroom, which, I have to confirm, they definitely did not. When I asked them to get a room, Dad threw Alice’s keys at me. They must want me to sleep in the car.” 

 

“She probably thought you would go over to her house, and see Betty,” Toni pointed out, trying to find patience to illuminate common sense where it existed for others. “Why haven’t you?” 

 

“Betty and I, things aren’t so great right now,” he admitted. “I don’t know if we’re going to make it for the long haul.” 

 

“Heather came back,” she admitted, as she joined him on the hood of the car. “It was like I didn’t even exist. She  _ knew _ I was there.”

 

“I think that Alice has a blanket in the car,” Jughead offered. “It’s got to be more comfortable than sleeping on the hood.”

  
  


The Fifth Time

 

“How mad are your dad and Alice going to get if they find me in here?” Toni questioned, her tone light, as she burrowed herself under the blankets,  finding Jughead’s new bed very comfortable indeed. “I mean, on a scale of one to ten?”

 

“Well, considering the fact that Betty is dating Archie…” Jughead rolled his eyes heavenward, before shaking his head. “I would say that Alice might not even notice. If she does, what is she going to do? As far as she knows, we’re just friends. Dad even said that you could stay in our old trailer.” 

 

“I don’t think his intent was for us to be sleeping together, though,” she pointed out, her tone teasing. “Are they even home?”

 

“They’re asleep,” he said. “They won’t bother us.” 

 

“Isn’t it awkward, living here, though?” Toni questioned. “I mean, your ex-girlfriend lives in the bedroom right down the hall. You could be stepsiblings someday.” 

 

“I’m used to awkward,” he admitted. “It’s practically my middle name.” 

 

Toni brushed her lips against Jughead’s. “I thought you were just limited edition?” 


End file.
